Rajon Rondo continues to battle ankle injuries. On Monday, in the team’s first practice since beating Atlanta on Friday night, Rondo was seen limping off the court after turning his ankle.

Doc Rivers said he wasn’t sure of the severity or which ankle was turned but said he didn’t initially think it was a serious injury.

“He just twisted his ankle, nothing bad but instead of keeping him out on the floor, easier to take him off,” Rivers said.

Meanwhile, Rivers said Kevin Garnett is making progress in rehabbing his strained right knee but not enough for him to return this week.

“I’m just really happy with what we see,” Rivers said. “A week ago there was more concern. This week, less concern. He looks great, he’s moving great. You can just tell the difference.”

Rivers ruled Garnett out from games through next Sunday, meaning the star forward won’t be able to play in the team’s final three games as Rivers had hoped.

“He won’t play this week, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday,” Rivers said. “But he’s going to go on the road with us and start practicing. Actually, our hope is start practicing our entire team on this little road trip, which would be really nice since I haven’t seen them in a while, and I think it’s possible.”

Rivers also said Garnett will travel with the team on its road trip to Cleveland and Philadelphia, with the hope of having the entire team together practicing together. Leon Powe and Brian Scalabrine could also return to action in practice.

Last time they met: March 27, 2009
The Celtics survived a fourth quarter push from the Hawks to hold on to a 99-93 win in Atlanta. Glen Davis stepped in for Kevin Garnett, adding 19 points and 12 rebounds. Ray Allen led the Celtics with 22 points. Joe Johnson and Josh Smith also scored 22 points apiece for the Hawks. The Celtics also dished out 22 assists to the Hawks’ 14.

“I knew I shouldn’t try to set a pick. I don’t set picks anyways,” he laughed. “I don’t know what I was doing. I was trying to make Doc happy.”

Powe offered another update on his sprained knee prior to the Boston Celtics-Charlotte Bobcats game on Wednesday night. That afternoon he spent 45 minutes exercising in the pool rehabbing from the injury he suffered on March 17 against the Chicago Bulls.

“It felt good afterward. It actually felt better than when I first got in,” he said. “So we’re going to stick with the pool work, of course, just try to take it day by day. If I feel good, we’ll do something else. If I don’t, we’ll keep it the same.”

Powe plans on spending a lot of time in the water. His workout routines are limited by team doctors, who also have cleared him to riding the stationary bike in intervals. Other than shooting free throws, Powe does not expect to be practicing on the court for at least another week to week-and-a-half.

While Powe is anxious to help the Kevin Garnett-less Celtics — “I want to come back for my bigs. I’ve got to get healthy for my bigs,” he said — he knows rushing back too soon could lead to more problems in the future. He has set a goal for his return but will not disclose the date.

“I learn something new every day, but you know me, I just don’t want to come back and not be myself,” he said. “So I’m going to make sure I’m going to be myself before I come back out there. Especially on defense, that’s where I really want to be effective.”

“Yeah, we can,” Rivers said. “I believe that. Defensively, is where we need him, offensively, too, with his shot and all that and his leadership on the floor. I really believe we can. And I think he will be 100 percent or close to it. I don’t know if he’ll be 100 percent. Yeah, I do, though, that is the answer.”

Then told that the question was can you win without Garnett, PERIOD, that generated a slightly different response.

“No, that would be difficult,” Rivers added. “That would be very difficult. But let’s hope that is something we don’t have to find out.”

Asked if he thought the star wouldn’t be ready for the playoffs after the team shut him down on Tuesday, Rivers said he doesn’t expect his right knee injury to keep him from the postseason.

“I think he absolutely will,” Rivers said of Garnett playing in the playoffs. “Obviously, there’s always a chance but I don’t see that, I really don’t. I would be very, very surprised if Kevin Garnett is not playing in game 1 of the playoffs.”

He hasn’t been that big a player since coming to the Celtics in February but Mikki Moore spoke volumes on Tuesday when he spoke about the news that the team is shutting down Kevin Garnett for the time being with continuing right knee soreness.

“It’s a big adjustment,” said Moore, who will pick up the slack along with Glen Davis. “He’s the center of everything. He’s the vocal point of our defense and he enthuses guys to come out and play hard. We’re going to miss his presence out on the floor but he’s always in the locker room or on the sideline out there talking to us. We’ll be alright.”

Coach Doc Rivers is hopeful that Moore, Davis and Bill Walker can step into line of fire and help while KG gets his rest.

“He’s been terrific,” Rivers said of Davis. “Mikki has a big game the other night as well. Maybe that’s the silver lining, that Mikki and Big Baby are playing more. Steph is getting more minutes due to the fact that we just don’t have enough bodies and Billy Walker is playing more so maybe that is a silver lining.”

As for others who just became more important, Rivers knows the burden falls to Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

“We’re not going to play them more minutes but clearly there’s more pressure on them,” Rivers said. “I understand that. That may be a reason to cut their minutes a little bit as well. Bottom line is we’re going to be healthy when playoffs start and we’re going to do whatever we can to have the legs.”

“We have to do it as a team,” Perkins said. “For sure, I have to do a better job of communicating on the floor and talking the defense out.”

Perkins can read the writing on the wall about the team’s chances if KG isn’t fully recovered.

“There’s always concern,” Perkins said. “A guy that has a month off from rest, comes back and he’s still not fully recovered. It’s still kind of scary. But then again, you’re dealing with a warrior, so he’ll find a way to get back.

“When he was out there, he wasn’t 100 percent, you could tell. The biggest thing is, we’ve got two-to-three weeks before the playoffs and we just want Kevin to be healthy, get treatment, messages and go from there,” Perkins added.

Garnett missed 13 games with what the team called a right knee strain, during which time the Celtics went 7-6 and fell out of the race with Cleveland for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. He returned on March 20 to help the Celtics win three straight, but played limited minutes, and was held out of their games with Atlanta and Oklahoma City.

On Sunday, Doc Rivers said it was likely Garnett would miss tomorrow’s game with Charlotte but might be able to go on Friday against the Hawks. Today’s development changes that, obviously, and for the time being it appears that the Celtics do not have a timetable for his return.

Garnett’s absence, coupled with that of Leon Powe, has left the Celtics with just three healthy big men–Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis and Mikki Moore–and with Powe not scheduled to return until the end of the regular season at the earliest, the C’s are in a bind as they prepare for the playoffs. Rookie Bill Walker has seen his minutes increase slightly and was on the floor in a smallish lineup against the Thunder that had him essentially playing the big forward spot.

Rivers noted a few weeks ago that the team’s priorities were getting healthy and staying in front of Orlando for the second seed, and definitely in that order. The team’s decision to shelve KG confirms that line of thinking.

With seven games left in the regular season the Celtics are locked into either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed (they could technically still overtake Cleveland but it’s highly doubtful), and they appear rather unconcerned about the possibility of falling behind the Magic.

With little or no incentive to grind out the rest of the regular season, the move makes sense, but at issue for Rivers and the team is figuring out roles and the rotation for the playoffs, something that has been impossible to sort through while the Celtics battle through injuries to four key players.